Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-28-Speech-3-432-000"
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"en.20110928.24.3-432-000"2
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"Madam President, the situation of the refugees stranded in North Africa is of course an issue of major concern. When the crisis began, the Commission immediately called for a meeting between Member States, the Commission, the IOM and the UNHCR to discuss the situation of the refugees stranded in Libya and to get an assessment of the resettlement needs.
I can assure you that the Commission is working hard to develop better and more flexible ways to fund EU resettlement, and that will be part of the post-2013 financial instrument. We hope that increased funding, combined with new flexible rules, will result in more resettlement from EU Member States.
Ladies and gentlemen, this year we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Convention. During the commemoration in Geneva in December this year, state commitments will, hopefully, be made. The UNHCR has expressed hope that the EU Member States will come forward with new resettlement pledges, and we will continue to call on the Commission to resettle the most vulnerable refugees from North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Today, before this Parliament, I would like to ask you to join us in urging the Member States to do more and to show solidarity with those countries where there are people in extreme need of help and resettlement. Together maybe we can achieve something so that new commitments could be made. This would be a true commitment for solidarity and responsibility, sharing and also showing European Union values at their best.
As you know, the European Union tried to evacuate – and succeeded in evacuating – thousands of people from third countries and bring them back to their countries of origin. We also called for the Member States to pledge resettlement places for refugees coming from the region. Several Member States announced their readiness to consider resettlement or to rearrange their annual quotas in order to be able to resettle urgent cases. In parallel, the Commission financed humanitarian assistance to be provided to all refugees leaving the country. That also included an evacuation process from places such as Misratah, the establishment of refugee camps and assistance with registration and reports.
In May this year I organised a meeting with the Ministers, a pledging conference on resettlement of the stranded refugees. Further pledges were made. In total, EU Member States pledged 408 places for refugees from North Africa. In addition, Norway pledged 300. This is good but is clearly not enough.
The Commission is, as you know, not directly involved in the process of resettlement itself. That is jointly run by the UNHCR, the Member States and the IOM. The information I have on the statistics there is based on the figures I got from the UNHCR. So far, eight EU Member States have agreed to consider 374 cases submitted by the UNHCR. Of this number so far, seven Member States have accepted 303 refugees for resettlement; 155 have already departed: 25 to Belgium, 130 to Sweden.
We are very aware that the need for a settlement is much greater. However, that decision rests with the Member States. What the Commission can do is quite limited. We can encourage Member States through financial support from the European Refugee Fund, particularly for the regions where there is a regional protection programme in place. As an incentive, Member States can receive EUR 4 000 from the Refugee Fund per resettled refugee coming from any of these countries.
The Regional Protection Programme in North Africa includes Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and is run jointly with the UNHCR. At the Commission’s request, the programme has an important resettlement component financed from its EUR 3.6 million budget. This is intended to speed up the sometimes very slow process.
It is not yet possible to assess how many of the 3 083 of the settlement places pledged by the Member States formally within their quotas for REF funding for next year will be allocated from this region, but I hope that the urgent need in North Africa will be considered and that the Member States will use large parts of their quotas to resettle refugees from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
The regional protection programmes in North Africa were created to increase the protection space in the region. It is our long-term goal to build up an asylum capacity together with these new governments so that the improved international standards can be in place. This is also part of the mobility partnership that we are seeking with these countries.
As for the joint EU resettlement programme, there is disagreement over the procedure. I very much regret that the compromise proposals so far have not been able to gain support. The European Refugee Fund is, as you know, quite a large and complex mechanism and is run according to well-defined rules. The pledging of resettlement places must take place by June each year, and that means that any amendment to the Refugee Fund decision must be finalised very soon to ensure a smooth operation."@en1
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